Sinners
Rotten Tomatoes
I recently just drove over half an hour away to ensure that I saw Sinners on IMAX, which I was told was highly recommended (even by director Ryan Coogler himself). In hindsight, I would have driven two hours. It really was worth it.
Now, Sinners is reaching the masses and it has done something stunning. As it stands, Sinners now has one of the highest combined critic and audience Rotten Tomatoes scores…ever.
Sinners has a 98% score from 223 critics, and a 97% score from several thousand confirmed viewers on the site. It’s hard to overstate how rare this is. Hell, it’s tied with The Godfather (97%, 98%), above Parasite (99%, 95%), above more or less every beloved Disney or Pixar movie that often attract sky-high critic and audience scores.
If we’re talking more recently, Sinners is tied with Top Gun Maverick (96%, 99%) and legitimately, one of the only films I can find that’s above it, period, is 2023’s Godzilla Minus One with a possible world’s best 99% and 98% critic/audience split.
Sinners
Sinners
Am I saying that Sinners is as good as The Godfather? No, no I’m not. But in this modern era of attempting to please both critics and fans, something like this almost never happens. And for a 1930s-set vampire movie, no less. It’s also a huge triumph for a wholly original production. Not a sequel, not any sort of adaptation, not using any existing IP. This is entirely from director Ryan Coogler’s own mind which again, we see far less often that we used to, but even then, nothing that hits these kind of high watermarks, especially for widely released films.
Ryan Coogler is also the man behind one of the MCU’s best-ever films, Black Panther, and its sequel, both of which featured Sinners’ Michael B. Jordan. Now, Jordan (times two), Hailee Steinfeld and an amazing supporting cast has turned Sinners into a must-watch theatrical experience. The film is supposedly going to open with a $50 million plus weekend which again, for an original film, is stellar. Oh, and it’s R-rated (extremely R-rated), making that total even more impressive.
Personally, I cannot recommend Sinners enough, which may start somewhat slow but builds to a final third that’s so frenzied it’s hard to describe. It also features what I might consider one of the best sequences I’ve ever seen put to film, and without question, you will know it when you see it. And see it in IMAX, if you can.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
